5E Friday - Dungeonscape

The news this week is that Dungeonscape, the online gaming tool being made by Trapdoor, is no longer being made for 5E. News has been sparse and is likely to remain so as to the actual behind the scenes decision making. Here are some of my random thoughts on the topic...

-I suspect the product was late. Normally such a product should have launched with the Player's Handbook. Two months after the PHB release and they are still in beta. It also looked like a release version was far off.

-Seeing some recent feedback on the beta...things were not going well. They didn't even have the character generator complete or non-buggy.

-Combine a late product with it looking even later and WotC probably decided to pull the plug on what they felt was a non-viable product. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but from WotC - "we remain committed to creating great tabletop and digital gaming experiences for Dungeons & Dragons players and DMs" - To me this sounds like Dungeonscape was not looking like it would be a 'great...digital gaming experience'.
If the product had hope of completing I suspect WotC would have kept them on...but it didn't look like that was a possibility.

-People are hoping that PDFs of the books will become available now. Previously the only online versions of the books would have been through Dungeonscape. However, I suspect WotC is working on a new online resource with the same intent of keeping the books behind an online source (ie no PDFs).

-It sounds like Trapdoor is looking to continue on the project, however, it will likely not be for 5E. They will likely shop it out to other companies or make it something generic.

-I never expected a personal "need" for the product, though I would have checked it out. However, I won't be missing it now that its dead.

-Look for news about their newest online product for 5E from WotC soon. I suspect they've been looking for another producer for at least a month.